A friend of mine noticed something really interesting about the Dragons Exalted set. The description of the set was released awhile ago, quoted here for reference:
This description says there will be 15 Dragon Pokemon in the set. The following ones have been confirmed:
Garchomp (main set)
Garchomp (half deck)
Hydregion (half deck)
Rayquaza-EX (non-FA)
Giratina-EX (non-FA)
Overall, we had the following dragons between the Japanese set and half-deck:
Altaria
Rayqyaza-EX (non-FA)
Gible (main set)
Gabite (main set)
Garchomp (main set)
Rayquaza-EX (FA)
Giratina-EX (non-FA)
Deino (main set)
Zweilous (main set)
Hydregion (main set)
Giratina-EX (FA)
Rayquaza (secret rare)
Deino (half-deck)
Zweilous (half-deck)
Hydregion (half-deck)
Gible (half-deck)
Gabite (half-deck)
Garchomp (half-deck)
That's 18 Pokemon. This means three dragon-type Pokemon will be cut.
Now, we know the non-FA Rayquaza-EX is #85 and the good Garchomp is #90. This means there are four cards in between these two. The only dragons with Pokedex numbers between Rayquaza and Garchomp in the set are Gible and Gabite. And there are two of those. So that fills these spots and we can effectively say these cards are confirmed.
We can also assume that the Hydregion line will mirror the Garchomp line and that we'll get six Hydregion. The accidental printing of the good Hydregion in the theme deck makes it incredibly likely it will be in the set, and since no future Hydregion are confirmed, it's unlikely they'd cut the card's pre-evolutions. So we can effectively confirm that the following cards will be in the set:
Garchomp x2
Gabite x2
Gible x2
Hydregion x2
Zweilous x2
Deino x2
Rayquaza-EX x2
Giratina-EX x2
=16
We can assume that the FA versions of the EX cards will be in there because they've never done otherwise, and because six FA cards are in the Japanese set and it's been confirmed we'll get six in the English set.
So, we're already one over the confirmed number of dragon Pokemon. The only logical thing to assume is that they count Rayquaza-EX and Rayquaza-EX FA as one Pokemon and Giratina-EX and Giratina-EX FA as the same Pokemon because the FA are just alternate art of the normal ones. If they counted them separately, it would be like counting a RH version of a card as a different Pokemon than the non-RH version. Of course, this part is just speculation.
But, if that's true, that puts us at 14 dragons. However, the following cards are still left out:
Altaria
Rayquaza
Rayquaza (Secret Rare, so it technically doesn't count as part of the set)
If the speculation above is correct, this means that either Altaria or Rayquaza will be cut from the set.
Now, to get a better idea of which it might be, let's take a look at the number of cards in Dragons Exalted. We know that there are 124 cards, excluding Secret Rares. Non-FA Rayquaza-EX is number 85, and the last dragon, be it Altaria or regular Rayquaza, would come before it. This means there should be 83 non-dragon, non-colorless Pokemon in the set.
Sure enough, if we count the cards in Dragon Blade, Dragon Blast, and the half-decks, there are 83 non-dragon, non-colorless Pokemon. We know we're getting 15 dragons and six FA cards. So that puts at 104 cards. Which means we're missing 20. There are 14 Colorless Pokemon in the sets combined. So we're looking at six trainers and energy. Well, excluding reprints in the half-decks, there are four trainers and two special energy in the set. That makes six. So we're at the number we're supposed to be at - 124.
However, if Altaria were to be cut, Swablu would probably be cut too - both the one in the half-deck and the one in the main set. And this would ruin the number 124, forcing them to give us two English-exclusive cards or something. It seems unlikely they'd do this, although of course it also seems unlikely they'd cut ONE dragon Pokemon from the set and leave all the rest. Still, this argument makes it sound likely that it will be Rayquaza.
Furthermore, there is no regular Giratina in the set despite there being a Giratina-EX. So it wouldn't really make sense to have Giratina-EX but no Giratina despite having Rayquaza-EX and Rayquaza in the set. So it would kinda sorta make some small amount of sense to cut Rayquaza out of this set and release it alongside the normal Giratina.
tl;dr If the above speculation is correct, Rayquaza will be cut from Dragons Exalted. If this happened, ZekEel would lose its primary way of running with Garchomp, and Garchomp would lose a nice backup attacker. How would this impact the metagame?
This description says there will be 15 Dragon Pokemon in the set. The following ones have been confirmed:
Garchomp (main set)
Garchomp (half deck)
Hydregion (half deck)
Rayquaza-EX (non-FA)
Giratina-EX (non-FA)
Overall, we had the following dragons between the Japanese set and half-deck:
Altaria
Rayqyaza-EX (non-FA)
Gible (main set)
Gabite (main set)
Garchomp (main set)
Rayquaza-EX (FA)
Giratina-EX (non-FA)
Deino (main set)
Zweilous (main set)
Hydregion (main set)
Giratina-EX (FA)
Rayquaza (secret rare)
Deino (half-deck)
Zweilous (half-deck)
Hydregion (half-deck)
Gible (half-deck)
Gabite (half-deck)
Garchomp (half-deck)
That's 18 Pokemon. This means three dragon-type Pokemon will be cut.
Now, we know the non-FA Rayquaza-EX is #85 and the good Garchomp is #90. This means there are four cards in between these two. The only dragons with Pokedex numbers between Rayquaza and Garchomp in the set are Gible and Gabite. And there are two of those. So that fills these spots and we can effectively say these cards are confirmed.
We can also assume that the Hydregion line will mirror the Garchomp line and that we'll get six Hydregion. The accidental printing of the good Hydregion in the theme deck makes it incredibly likely it will be in the set, and since no future Hydregion are confirmed, it's unlikely they'd cut the card's pre-evolutions. So we can effectively confirm that the following cards will be in the set:
Garchomp x2
Gabite x2
Gible x2
Hydregion x2
Zweilous x2
Deino x2
Rayquaza-EX x2
Giratina-EX x2
=16
We can assume that the FA versions of the EX cards will be in there because they've never done otherwise, and because six FA cards are in the Japanese set and it's been confirmed we'll get six in the English set.
So, we're already one over the confirmed number of dragon Pokemon. The only logical thing to assume is that they count Rayquaza-EX and Rayquaza-EX FA as one Pokemon and Giratina-EX and Giratina-EX FA as the same Pokemon because the FA are just alternate art of the normal ones. If they counted them separately, it would be like counting a RH version of a card as a different Pokemon than the non-RH version. Of course, this part is just speculation.
But, if that's true, that puts us at 14 dragons. However, the following cards are still left out:
Altaria
Rayquaza
Rayquaza (Secret Rare, so it technically doesn't count as part of the set)
If the speculation above is correct, this means that either Altaria or Rayquaza will be cut from the set.
Now, to get a better idea of which it might be, let's take a look at the number of cards in Dragons Exalted. We know that there are 124 cards, excluding Secret Rares. Non-FA Rayquaza-EX is number 85, and the last dragon, be it Altaria or regular Rayquaza, would come before it. This means there should be 83 non-dragon, non-colorless Pokemon in the set.
Sure enough, if we count the cards in Dragon Blade, Dragon Blast, and the half-decks, there are 83 non-dragon, non-colorless Pokemon. We know we're getting 15 dragons and six FA cards. So that puts at 104 cards. Which means we're missing 20. There are 14 Colorless Pokemon in the sets combined. So we're looking at six trainers and energy. Well, excluding reprints in the half-decks, there are four trainers and two special energy in the set. That makes six. So we're at the number we're supposed to be at - 124.
However, if Altaria were to be cut, Swablu would probably be cut too - both the one in the half-deck and the one in the main set. And this would ruin the number 124, forcing them to give us two English-exclusive cards or something. It seems unlikely they'd do this, although of course it also seems unlikely they'd cut ONE dragon Pokemon from the set and leave all the rest. Still, this argument makes it sound likely that it will be Rayquaza.
Furthermore, there is no regular Giratina in the set despite there being a Giratina-EX. So it wouldn't really make sense to have Giratina-EX but no Giratina despite having Rayquaza-EX and Rayquaza in the set. So it would kinda sorta make some small amount of sense to cut Rayquaza out of this set and release it alongside the normal Giratina.
tl;dr If the above speculation is correct, Rayquaza will be cut from Dragons Exalted. If this happened, ZekEel would lose its primary way of running with Garchomp, and Garchomp would lose a nice backup attacker. How would this impact the metagame?
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